For Student Non-Athletes, It’s Hardly Fun and Games

Steve Jacobson of Newsday recently mused about the recent concern about “exploitation” of student-athletes. The more he looked at it, the better it looked.

“If you consider that at a number of schools, an athletic scholarship is good for five years, a full ride can be worth $100,000. Not to mention the value of an education in the marketplace. Maybe there’s a chance to be a multimillionaire superstar. Maybe they live in the privacy of athletic dormitories, known familiarly as beast barracks.”

Then Jacobson considered the plight of student-non athletes. Quoting the director of an undergraduate biological research program at Syracuse University, he wrote of these students, who slave over Bunsen burners: “They’re also carrying a full course load, many of them in honors programs. Some of them have work-study support, washing dishes or working in the library or in the parking office. I don’t think any of them get a full scholarship; the best of them get some money toward tuition. There are no special dormitories. They also find some time for rest and recreation, although I don’t know how.”

Play it again?Walter Cronkite, an accomplished sailor even during his 19 years as CBS News anchorman, will compete in the 42nd annual Newport-to-Ensenada race starting April 28 off Newport Beach. Cronkite won’t be sailing his own boat but will be aboard Ms Blu, whose owner Harry Thomansen is unable to participate.

Doug Wall, president of the Newport Ocean Sailing Assn. that runs the event, said Cronkite told him, “I want to be on a fun boat, not one that’s deadly serious.

“But I want it to be fast enough so I can get there in time for the parties.”

The earth moved: How important is soccer in Europe? Pretty darn important. Residents of Naples, Italy recently fled their homes when they thought an earthquake struck--but it was actually a stampede of soccer fans who made the earth tremble.

Several families told reporters cracks appeared in the walls of their apartments when the crowd of 83,000 in the nearby San Paolo stadium celebrated two Napoli goals against Bayern Munich in a UEFA soccer cup tie.

The residents, who say work to improve the stadium has weakened the foundations of their apartments and affected the acoustics, have asked local authorities to install a seismograph to measure the strength of tremors during soccer matches.

Fists across the water: Olympic basketball was opened to professional players last week on an overwhelming vote, thus allowing National Basketball Assn. players to compete in the Olympics. How did the U.S. delegation, which stands to reap the gold from the decision, react?

Dave Gavitt, the U.S. federation chief, said: “We are going to be good colleagues until the ball goes up, and then we are going to try to beat your brains out, and we will have our best players to do it.”

All in the spirit of fair play.

Quotebook: Minnesota, in its first playoff series since 1986, lost to St. Louis in overtime in both of its first two Stanley Cup playoff games. Said North Star Coach Pierre Page: “Sometimes there’s no rationale to this game. You don’t try to figure it out, you just play.”